Posts tagged ‘badass guns’

June 7th, 2010

My Favorite Hostels RTW

Hostels make travel life interesting – not always in a good way – but with a stay in one, you never really know what you’ll get. It could be the best adventure of your life, or it could be no sleep and bed bugs that take over your memories of a place. Luckily, I’ve never had to deal with that buggy side of the equation, and for the most part, I’ve had a lot of great experiences at hostels around the world. Here are some of my favorite places that I have stayed at abroad and why.

El Hostal – Antigua, Guatemala

For being my first jaunt into Central America, I couldn’t have picked a better hostel to make the transition in than El Hostal in Antigua. Run by a fun, young Guatemalan couple, the hostel actually doubles as a breakfast joint for the locals, and wow – get your fill! The food was amazing, and the place beautiful. They even let us wreak havoc with them on New Year’s.

Argonauts – Riga, Latvia

This hostel is now named the Naughty Squirrel, but when I stayed it was Argonauts. The setup was awesome for meeting people since they had an amazing lounge room with a TV and air hockey, plus a beer tap right at reception. You could go from being a lonely traveler with no plans to having a million best friends just by stopping by the lounge in the evening. This is also the hostel where I met Patrick!

VB Sleep Inn – Vilnius, Lithuania

You just have to love hostels with a small setting, and even more so when a friend of yours is working there. The VB Sleep Inn was quite small, and the common room was basically the kitchen… but it worked like magic bringing travelers together. This is where I joined the group to shoot badass guns in a bomb shelter, too. I believe the name has since changed to Hostelgate and different people work there, but I would still recommend a stay there if my friend’s new hostel is booked up because it is right in the center and only a 1 minute walk to a great late-night burger joint.

TIU Front Page Hostel – Odessa, Ukraine

After my unsatisfactory stays at hostels in Kiev about a year earlier, I wasn’t expecting much in regards to my place in Odessa. This trip was a girls’ weekend trip, and we were pleasantly surprised on all accounts. Besides being a bit shocked by some initial remarks by the guys running the joint, it turned out to be one of my favorite places to stay ever – and that’s just because the people (Polish and American guys) were so damn cool and accommodating. Check them on FB.

Nomad’s Home – Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

I had made no bookings before my arrival to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, but luckily had someone from my language school pick me up from the airport. I showed her a list of places I found – this one on Wikipedia of all places – and she did all the work of taking me there, waking the family up at 6am and doing all of the talking for me. Nomad’s Home is a guest house run by a Kyrgyz family. They built a building in the backyard for dorm beds, a toilet and shower, and they even put up yurts in the spring that you can sleep in instead. In the morning, you can pay a bit of money to get a breakfast of teas, jams, bread and an egg in the main house with the family. It is a good marshrutka ride from the city behind the old bus station, but what trip to Bishkek would be complete without a ride in one of those?!

So Young’s Happiness Guesthouse – Almaty, Kazakhstan

A fun-loving Korean woman turned her spare bedroom of her apartment into a small guesthouse. It is a great place to stay, and her kindness and love of caring for you will simply overwhelm you. I stayed here for about a week, enjoying kimchi and rice for breakfast, and have no regrets! She might beg you to go along with her to club Soho until you finally say yes (see photo to the right), but other than that, it’s just a nice place to call home for a while. On-site laundry, free use of the kitchen, a key of your own — all near various restaurants, shops and even Turkish baths.

Lantana Lodge – Auckland, New Zealand

This is by far the CLEANEST hostel I have ever stayed in in my life. It was the type of place where workers would wake you up in the morning with their vacuuming, and the smell of cleaning fluids would permeate the halls after attacking the bathrooms every morning. Every person would take their shoes off at the door, most everyone did their dishes immediately, and the toilets even had seat-cleaner dispensers that you could use for extra wipe-downs. Because of this, the hostel felt really homey and comfortable. Plus, they had FREE WI-FI! That is just not common in this area of the world.

 

What I like in hostels:

  • Friendly owners and workers, especially ones that want to spend time with you and introduce you to the area.
  • Smaller settings as they are better for meeting people.
  • Free wi-fi because it is just a small addition that guests will thank you for!
  • Cleanliness. No one likes disgusting toilets, showers and kitchens.
  • Unique experiences, like the opportunity to sleep in a yurt, shoot guns or partake in a massive local meal.

These are my own personal preferences when looking for hostels around the world. What do you look for in a good budget accommodation? Better yet, has anybody reading this actually stayed in one of these locations?

Photo credits: 4 – Jessica Powers, 5 – Nomad’s Home, 6 – So Young

CategoryReviews | Comment11 Comments »

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October 10th, 2009

Things I've Kept: Badass Gun Targets

targets

I shot some hardcore, badass guns while in Vilnius, Lithuana last year. Besides the memories, photos and videos, I managed to keep my targets, which is a good thing because keeping the bullet shells resulted in a seriously awkward situation (and they had to go).

As you can tell, I’m a pretty accurate shot… kind of a natural. Since I never want to hold a gun in my hand ever again, I’m keeping these targets as proof, and as a souvenir.

CategoryThings I've Kept | CommentNo Comments »

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February 13th, 2009

I can't believe I did that!

Every year for the past few, I have taken part in scoring standardized tests for Illinois schools. This is a temporary (usually only a month long) job, but it helps me save a few extra bucks. I recently got another offer for this April, which I was ecstatic about… until I read the fine print.

This year, the company wants me to resend a document to them, and the problem with this task is that they want it notarized. In America, this would pose no problem, but in Ukraine? Where’s a girl supposed to get a document notarized here and have an American company trust that it is in fact real?

At the American Embassy, that’s where!

For some reason, I had myself fooled into thinking this little expedition into downtown would only take 1.5 hours. I’m not sure where I got that number, but I definitely spent that long just in transit. Getting things done here always takes a long time!

As I neared the street of the American Embassy, I started to hear faint shouting noises. These grew into a much clearer megaphoned voice with other voices cheering from time to time the closer I got. “Oh, please, oh please, oh please don’t be outside the embassy,” I hoped, but of course this little gathering was exactly outside the embassy where I was wanting to go. I have no idea what these people were saying overall, but words in reference to Cuba, America, and Puerto Rico were tossed about. A bunch of flags were on display, some for Puerto Rico, and some signs for Barack Obama. It didn’t seem like it was a negative street display, but hey, I don’t mess around with crowds of people armed with megaphones.

I sneakily snuck my way to the guard booth for the embassy with passport on display only to find out that I wanted citizen services, which would actually be at the American Consulate a few blocks away.

So, my trip took longer because I had to trudge through the Kyiv streets to find the Consulate, and I knew I had arrived when I saw the huge line of Ukrainian people hanging around outside. I wandered up to the door area where I was immediately confronted by a Ukrainian guard asking to see my passport. Luckily, I passed the test and was allowed inside to the bag check/body scan area. This is where things started to get interesting.

The two Ukrainian guards asked me to empty my pockets, turn off my cell phone, and give them my purse. They ran my purse through a scanner and quickly started finding things I had forgotten in my bag.

“Is this a flash drive?” they asked.

Yes, I had forgotten that thing had been thrown into the abyss that is my purse many months ago. I had to scour to find it. They then ran the bag through again and found something else.

“Ok, it looks like you have a little flashlight and some batteries here.”

I ended up taking everything out of my bag looking for it until I realized it was probably in the tiny little zipper pouch on the outside. Yes, there was my mini-flashlight.

“Ok, now what about these little things that look like batteries in the scan?” they asked.

I think my heart stopped. Every curse word I could think of ran through my mind as I realized what those little battery looking objects in my bag were. Really? Did I seriously leave those things in my bag for the past 4 months and not remember?! I even think now that I flew to Ukraine with those in my carry on luggage! S^*#! F@#K!!!!

I swallowed hard and pulled out the battery-looking objects from the small zipper pouch of my bag. And, just what were these objects you might ask? If you refer back to about 4 months ago, I was probably in Vilnius, Lithuania. And, what did I do in Vilnius, Lithuania? Oh yeah, I shot hardcore, badass guns. So, what did I have in my bag? Yes, the bullet shells to these hardcore, badass guns that I kept as a souvenir. Bullet shells… at the American Consulate! Oi!

“No, no, no, you can’t have those here,” one of the guards said as he picked up a phone and started dialing a number. I wondered who he was calling. I tried to sputter out whatever words I could to explain myself as I held these things in my hand. Finally the other guard said the word I was looking for – souvenir.

“Yes, a souvenir!” I managed to speak. “I don’t need them. Please just throw them away.”

The guard proceeded to deny my request and tell me that I had to leave this building and put them somewhere else. Eventually, he said there was a storage locker next door that I could leave my bag at if I wanted to. He went outside to get a lady to help me, but I’m pretty sure he was telling people what I had brought with me since they sporadically shot me shocked looks. After a few more minutes of awkwardness, I managed to lock up my bag and go back into the booth where I’m sure the guard gave me a few extra courtesy scans this time for good measure. Fortunately, this time I was let inside.

In the end, I was successful in getting my document notarized and sent away to America. It was yet another simple task made long and interesting here in Ukraine. I still can’t believe I did that, and I definitely laughed to myself the entire way home because I did.

CategoryUkraine | Comment12 Comments »

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October 1st, 2008

Tickets to the Gun Show

It’s sort of funny, but one of the touristy things you can do in the Baltic countries is shoot some bad-ass guns for fun. I had never really thought about using guns for fun before, but when I found out my friend who is working at a hostel in Vilnius, Lithuania (VB Sleep Inn) is actually in charge of taking groups on this sort of outing I thought I’d give it a try. And plus, how often in life do you ever really get a chance to unload a couple of rounds in ak-47s, uzis, and glocks?

It took about a week in order to get a group large enough to go, but finally, we did it. We were pumped! It was an awesome six-gun package that would make any gun enthusiast quiver: ak-47, uzi, m4, mp5, sig saur, and a glock. No one in the group had ever shot a gun before, so we were not aware of what would happen, and I can tell you that from the moment I heard the first gun fired, I was very terrified! But, I did it. I shot some truly deadly weapons – all of which left me shaking from both fright and excitement at the same time.

Some things I learned while shooting:

1) It is not easy! I don’t care how the people in the movies make it look, its no walk in the park! My arms were tired just from holding these heavy suckers up!
2) The Ak-47 has quite the kick back. I had a really crazy welt on my shoulder after 20 rounds in this gun.
3) Modern technology is my friend. Whenever the gun had a light target on it, I rocked it.
4) Gun powder is a hard taste to get rid of. My nose was black after shooting.
5) I would definitely recommend this to anyone!

Here is a little video I prepared of the outing, so sit back and enjoy!


Tickets to the Gun Show from Brooke Schoenman on Vimeo.

CategoryLithuania | Comment7 Comments »

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February 18th, 2008

Welcome to the Jungle

After much deliberation, we decided our next stop after Tikal was Rio Dulce. We made our way in the morning to the place in Flores where the guidebook says is a bus stop, but in actuality it is just a travel agency that buys a ticket for you for the bus station in Santa Elena.

The only reason we decided to go along with this route is because the lady helping us said the bus was coming now. How convenient. We paid the guy in the office our money and the lady took off on her bike. Meanwhile, the guy in the office, who was obviously wasted at 9:30 am and still drinking, said we would wait at the office for the bus to come. I made it my job to wait outside with our stuff while Brian dealt with the drunken ramblings of the owner. The really crazy part happened when the guy opened his desk drawer and there was a gun sitting there. After he saw the look on Brian’s face, he responded with, “This is Guatemala. You gotta have a gun.”

Just then, the lady on the bike came back and said we needed to go the bus station to get the bus. Uhmm… ok. They did just tell us that we could wait here for the bus, but not today? They at least paid for the tuk-tuk there. We hopped on our bus, and there we were, on our way to Rio Dulce for something that tops all adventures had thus far.

Rio Dulce makes it difficult to scout out a hotel because the best ones, supposedly, are on the waterfront and require a boat to take you there. We made our way to Bruno’s to see if we could start there when we ran into a strange hippie guy from the states who was more than happy to help us find a hotel. Next thing we knew, we had a place to stay and a boat taxi all set up for us. If it hadn’t had happened so quickly, I can say I probably wouldn’t have gone for it because on the boat ride over to Casa Perico, I just heard the hippie guy’s words playing over and over in my head, “You’re gonna love it. It’s right in the freaking jungle.”

Casa Perico has a very interesting setup. It is run by some Swiss guys and has its own restaurant there (since its so remote) with a rockin’ buffet option (do it! People boat over from the town just for this!). Brian and I literally made ourselves sick by indulging both nights in the buffet! Since it was Friday, we had to settle for a hostel dorm. The dorm bungalow has many beds in the bottom and an upper level with two beds and more privacy. We opted for the upper level, but the catch was it was open-air, meaning there was only an A-Frame roof with two sides open to the jungle outside. Even though we had bug nets, I couldn’t sleep that night. We had already encountered giant cockroaches, heard stories of botfly infections, and the sounds coming in from outside, and right next to my bed, were a bit too much for me to handle. And it was only made worse by the absolute pitch-black darkness that engulfed us out there.

jungle view

bungalow view

The next day, we made it clear to the owners that we preferred a private bungalow, and luckily we got it. Oh yes! The building has its own bathroom, which meant that when I had to get up late at night to use it, I wouldn’t have to walk a mile of dock with the creepy sounds of things jumping into the water right next to me. Even better was the fact that the private room had 4 walls! The first thing we did was check out the bathrooms in the back to see what we were now working with for an extra $3/night. Brian went to open the shower door and immediately started ducking. Then something came flying out and swooping around. Brian thought it was a bat, but I thought it looked like a bird. I decided to use the toilet at that moment, being careful when opening the door at first. When inside, I took a look around at the ceiling to make sure no bird was hanging around only to find the biggest spider I think I’ve ever seen in my life straight above. There was no way I could use the bathroom there in good conscience! I showed it to Brian and even he was a little taken aback by the size. We started to leave the bathroom area in search of the public ones when we heard a high-pitched screeching noise behind us. We turned around to see a bat hanging out right there by the sink. Brian was right!

It was a very long two days, full of many close encounters. I would have probably slept better the second night had it not been raining so hard! I would definitely recommend Casa Perico to any traveler to Rio Dulce looking for an interesting place to hang out. For us, two days in the jungle bungalows were more than enough, but as hippie guy put it, “You’ll never forget it!”

Here’s a little video of me ranting about surviving the jungle. I claim being delirious from stress, heat, and lack of sleep because its clearly not me at my best. Enjoy!


Will Brooke Survive? from Brooke Schoenman on Vimeo.

CategoryGuatemala | Comment4 Comments »

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